Naama Tsabar's Smashed Guitar Sculptures Invite Intimate Encounters

Now and then, Naama Tsabar breaks an electric guitar at her studio. With safety goggles on and blasting 1990s rock (ideally PJ Harvey), she tears a store-bought instrument into shreds. There are a few limitations: The size of her Brooklyn workspace dictates how far the wood and metal parts fly, and she must be alone. “This is a moment of release that I have to do privately,” Tsabar, who was featured in The Artsy Vanguard 2018, told Artsy, of this adrenaline-fueled act that creates the raw materials for her sculpture series “Melodies of Certain Damage.” “It is not about the moment of breaking,” she added. 

 

Intricately bolted to the floor, the sculptures are open to audience activation. These dismantled electric guitars go beyond the show of destruction—rather, they are a way to elevate the senses. Various factors dictate each shattered composition: The artist’s seconds-long gesture, gravity, and pure chance each play their part. A group of these floor pieces are a part of Tsabar’s first institutional show in Germany, “Estuaries,” which runs from April 12th through September 24th at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. In the show, their brutally smashed beauty still yields sounds, when the works are activated by a group of local women musicians during designated performances—the public is also invited to play them during opening hours.

 

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